The popularity of recreational activities in and around bodies of water, such as lakes and the ocean, is ever increasing. Similarly, the popularity of boating in such bodies of water is also increasing. In addition to boat owners enjoying the act of piloting their boats, many enjoy congregating with other boaters at sandbars, small islands, and marinas. During such congregations, or sometimes when alone, some boaters enjoy floating in the water near their boat with the aid of a flotation device.
However, it is necessary for the flotation device to be attached or tethered to the boat in some fashion so that the boater does not drift too far astray from the boat, which could lead to an unsafe scenario, or simply an undesirably long swim back toward the boat. Therefore, boaters commonly tie a rope to an attachment point on their boat and to their flotation device. While this does have the desired effect of ensuring that the boater does not drift too far from the boat, it is an inelegant solution, and may still be unable to retain the boater as close to the boat as desired, for example to allow easy passage of beverages from an individual in the boat to the boater in or on the flotation device.
Therefore, due to the problems discussed above, further development of new devices of attaching flotation devices to boats is needed.